


Breaking the Barrier

by Rod



Series: Parallel Lines [16]
Category: Veritas: The Quest
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-25
Updated: 2013-04-25
Packaged: 2017-12-09 10:40:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/773257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rod/pseuds/Rod
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cal makes a decision, and promptly becomes concerned about Nikko.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breaking the Barrier

Cal's been fighting depression ever since Sophie died. It hadn't really sunk in before how dangerous a game Veritas is playing. He'd never lost someone he cared about before, and it hurt. What hurt infinitely more was the thought of losing Nikko; if Sophie left such a hole in him after he hadn't seen her for years, would anything of him be left if Nikko died?

Sometimes Cal curses his intelligence, and this is a case in point. He couldn't not think about Nikko getting killed. It wasn't like Nikko didn't put himself into harm's way at every opportunity; three times now he'd been close to death, and three times Cal had had to remind himself to breathe. It hadn't got any easier; if anything Nikko's last brush with death while Cal was on the wrong side of the world had hit even harder.

Cal knows now that it was the depression speaking, but he didn't think he could take being shattered a fourth time. He tried once again to get Nikko out of his head, and once again Nikko stubbornly refused to go. He went out clubbing into the small hours, trying to find anyone that he could be safe with, but no one could keep his interest while Nikko was still resident in the back of his mind. He exhausted himself, and he still couldn't get away from that determinedly vulnerable face.

Tired and hurting, Cal had been inching his way to thinking the unthinkable. Veritas had been his life for so long, something that he believed in completely and something that might well be crucial to the future of humanity, but he had begun to wonder whether he could do the job any more. While he was part of the Veritas Foundation he would always be around Nikko, and Nikko would always be in the thick of trouble, and Cal didn't think he could cope with that any more. Would it be better for him to leave now, rather than wait until Nikko died and he broke into a million pieces?

He got his answer in the Templar castle, from Nikko of course. It seemed funny that he was the least affected of all of them by the subsonics, but in a bizarre way he could understand that. He was depressed and afraid for Nikko already, and maybe he got more depressed and afraid but he's not sure that's possible. Besides, Cal's become very good at hiding his emotions over the last months.

Nikko, on the other hand, lets everything hang out. His fear for his father was written all over his face, and Cal knew that Nikko wouldn't stay put and let Vincent handle it for long. Once he and Maggie worked out what was going on, that the low frequency Helmholtz resonance was opening them up to their fears, Cal knew that he'd have a fight on his hands to keep Nikko in the Great Hall. He wasn't quite expecting the physical fist-fight, but that was where he got his answer.

It wasn't that he got turned on when Nikko pinned him to the floor, he'd have had to have been dead not to react to that. It was what he saw in Nikko's eyes right then, the pain and fear that matched his own. Nikko couldn't abandon his father, and Cal knew there and then that he'd never be able to abandon Nikko. Cal could walk away from Veritas and Nikko would still be risking his life. The only difference that Cal's leaving would make would be that Nikko wouldn't have the very best backup keeping him alive.

Cal needs Nikko, it's as simple as that. Now all he's got to do is figure out how to broach the subject, and all of a sudden that's got very complicated.

When they were all safely back in New York, after Nikko went all weird and fitted the pieces together, Cal thought that everything was back to normal. Well, at least as normal as Veritas ever got, considering how many shocks they'd had in the last few days. They had a puzzle, an important job to do, and everyone seemed happy buckling down to it, even Nikko.

Now suddenly Nikko has gone all withdrawn on them. Ironically, Cal doesn't think that anyone else has cottoned on yet, because Nikko is doing what's expected of him; he's taking in Juliet's lessons, doing whatever weird martial arts shit Vincent has him on, and helping out when he's asked to. What he isn't doing is poking his nose into everyone else's work, turning up unexpectedly on the now rare occasions when Cal does need a break and go clubbing, and generally being the nuisance that Cal has come to know and love. If anything, he's keeping his distance, and that's just wrong.

Cal has become something of an expert Nikko-watcher, and he doesn't like what he sees. Nikko is brooding, withdrawing from the rest of the team, and that's very unlike him. Something is up, something that Nikko clearly doesn't want to let on to them about, something that is worrying Nikko a lot. It's got to be big, otherwise Nikko would have already gone out and done something stupid about it because for all he learned over the past months, Nikko still doesn't really get the whole teamwork thing.

Cal is Nikko's backup, and he isn't going to let this slide. He can't, any more than Nikko could leave his dad alone in the castle. He is going to find out what's up and fix it if it kills him. Because otherwise it might kill Nikko.


End file.
